


Relative Importance

by StripedSunhat



Series: Single Father Klaus [2]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Family Dynamics, Family Issues, Gen, Klaus screws up, Pre-Canon, Well that didn't take long to go badly, Why Gil needs therapy, Why Klaus needs therapy, Why Sparks need therapy, he's trying okay, promises promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 02:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15475047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripedSunhat/pseuds/StripedSunhat
Summary: Klaus Wulfenbach is a workaholic and a perfectionist and the soul leader of the current largest empire on the planet.  Up until now this hasn't been a problem.Of course that was before his son thought to expect things from him.





	Relative Importance

All in all, it had been a good two weeks. Gilgamesh had settled down from his breakthrough with no real problems. They’d successfully managed to hide his Spark, which indicated they’d be able to keep masking it in the future. There’d been no serious rebellions, revolts or assassination attempts. None of the labs or engine rooms had exploded or even caught fire. The empire was actually running in a way that could almost be considered smoothly.

So of course it couldn’t last.

A frantic messenger woke Klaus up at the lovely time of two forty-seven in the morning. He’d gotten to bed at one. So naturally he wasn’t in the best of moods when he dragged himself upright and took the message from the boy’s shaking hands. Honestly, just because he threatened to use him as a guinea pig didn’t mean he actually would. He had a better grasp on lab etiquette than to use non-minion underlings in lab experiments.

Then he actually read the message and all thoughts of etiquette flew out the window in favor of cursing. He was supposed to be getting to know his son. And now he had to deal with this instead. He was already sensing a theme forming here. And not one he liked.

It was still early by the time he got everything ready for his departure but Gilgamesh was already in the lab working on something. “Gilgamesh,” Klaus greeted, pocketing the note he’d planned to leave in Gil’s room. No point to it anymore.

“Father!” Gilgamesh yelped, spinning around with a rather large crash. “I wasn’t avoiding class I just had an idea last night and I needed to get started on it as soon as possible. Am I late? I didn’t mean to be.” Klaus made a mental note that maybe Gilgamesh’s Spark wasn’t quite as settled as he’d previously assumed.

“You aren’t late. It’s not even past six-thirty.”

“Oh. Um. Good.”

“Although, shouldn’t you be at breakfast right now?”

“I was… just about to.” His son needed to get better at lying. It was a miracle he hadn’t accidently given away his heritage since he’d learned it.

“I’m sure you were.”

“What are you doing here so early Father?” It was a rather obvious misdirect but at least it was something. They’d work on it.

“I wanted to make sure everything was in order before I left.”

“You’re leaving again?”

“Unfortunately. There’s a minor issue with a rebellion. It shouldn’t take too long to sort out though.”

“Oh.” Gilgamesh fiddled with one of the beakers on the table next to him. “I’ll miss you.”

“And I’ll miss you.” Klaus looked around the lab, considering the last time he’d had to leave the Castle. “It may be… better, though, if you were to keep to more theoretical pursuits until I return.”

Gilgamesh’s fingers stilled. “You don’t want me in the lab?”

“I think it would be safer if we waited until I was there with you, at least until we’re certain your Spark is completely settled. The period after a breakthrough can be just as dangerous as the breakthrough itself, oftentimes moreso. I’m only trying to keep you safe, Gilgamesh.” Gilgamesh dipped his head into a respectful nod.

“Of course Father.”

“I shouldn’t be gone long.” _Only a day or two_ he almost said until he remembered last time. He really didn’t want Gilgamesh wandering into the lab on day three and creating something more dangerous than his little tea construct.

“Will you come see me after you get back?”

“Of course I will. As soon as I’m back onboard.” He straightened from the crouch he’d assumed to talk to his son. “Now, you need to get back to the school for breakfast. It’s important that you eat.” He escorted Gilgamesh partially down the hall toward the school. Gilgamesh followed along behind him but Klaus couldn’t help noticing that his head remained turned down. In fact he’d never fully raised it, had he. He dropped his hand onto his son’s shoulder. “It’ll only be a few days,” he couldn’t help adding before letting Gilgamesh go and sending him back towards the school.

* * *

That had to be the least well thought out rebellion he’d ever seen. And that included the time Barry got absolutely sloshed and tried to replace Bill with a democratically elected flock of sheep as ruler of Mechanicsburg. If Klaus wasn’t so annoyed at how much of a sheer waste of his time the whole thing was he might have even been amused by their attempts.

Unfortunately even bad rebellions – scratch that, _especially_ bad rebellions – tended to overcompensate. In this case with fire. Lots of fire. By the time he’d finished putting the rebels down his jacket, shirt, pants and hair all sported several burns.

It made for a very effective intimidation technique however to storm onto the bridge, still smoking slightly, and slam his hands down on the table his advisors were crowded around. At least half of them probably thought he’d just pulled himself out of hell itself and he had absolutely no problems letting that misconception stand. “ _That_ was not worth my time,” he growled. “Schedule a meeting with my generals tomorrow and arrange a full review of all my troops for next week. If I was needed personally for a rebellion that shabby then why do I have armies in the first place?”

His next move was to go to his personal chambers, turn on his shower on full blast and at least attempt to get the smell of smoke and burnt hair off of himself. After almost thirty minutes he gave it up as a lost cause. He pulled on fresh clothes and made it all of five steps in the direction of the school before he was accosted by yet another messenger. Apparently three days off-ship was more than enough of an absence to let the rest of the empire completely break down. By the time he finally managed to corral everything back into something that didn’t actively resemble insanity it was past midnight. He still smelled like smoke, he hadn’t eaten in almost two days and all he wanted to do was sleep until the world imploded. He stayed up going over reports instead.

“Herr Baron! Herr Baron!” Klaus woke with a start. He was slumped over his desk, cheek pressed to a stack of papers covered in his signature he didn’t even remember reading let alone signing.

“What is it?”

“You ordered a meeting with your generals this morning. They’re assembled and waiting for you.” Oh, right. He had said that hadn’t he? Hauling himself up from the desk he shrugged on his greatcoat and stumbled over to the door.

“Right. Let’s get on with it.”

Meetings with his generals were private affairs taking place behind closed doors where anything said would be muffled and the sound of shouting and furniture being thrown could be ignored. This time however someone must have informed them of the upcoming troop inspection because they insisted Klaus look over their personal troops now. Troop inspections, now those were pageantry plain and simple. Klaus sloughed through the following several hours of puffed chests and pressed uniforms before finally making it to the jägers. They were always his favorite for two simple reasons. One, they came last which meant this ordeal was almost over and two, they were so much more interesting to review. Jägers were referred to as a _hoard_ for a reason. The jäger generals’ personal soldiers were even more disorganized, less troops and more errand boys who could rip out your spine. They chatted with each other and made jokes even as Klaus walked past. Dietrich waved at something in the rafters. Mimmoths had gotten into the ducts again, hadn’t they? Great. Another problem.

It was already late by the time he finished with his generals. He still hadn’t gotten any food yet. He was able to manage a sandwich before collapsing onto his bed.

The next morning he went down to the lab to make sure everything was still in place and ready for the next time he and Gilgamesh could spend time together in it.  
Gilgamesh was already there.

He was sitting in the middle of the floor, knees curled up to his chin staring at nothing. There was an untouched cup of tea next to him.

“Gilgamesh. I thought you promised not to come to the lab while I wasn’t here.”

“But you were here. You got back to the ship two days ago.”

Klaus paused, uncertain what to say. For starters how had his son even known he’d returned?

“Was it important?” Gil suddenly asked.

Klaus blinked, thrown by the question. “What?”

Gilgamesh didn’t look up at him. “Whatever it was that pulled you away. The rebellion you had to go deal with. Was it important?”

Klaus scrubbed his hand through his hair. It still smelled like smoke. “Not really, no.” His advisors were simply too stupid to realize that.

“And whatever you were doing yesterday. With the jägers. Was that important?”

How did his son know about that? “No. But it was necessary.”

“But it wasn’t important.”

“No, it wasn’t,” he agreed, trying to follow his son’s thought process. Right now he didn’t have a clue where this line of questioning was going.

“You were late last time too,” Gilgamesh said, possibly more to himself than to Klaus. It was hard to tell with him still curled into a ball as he was. “Was it important?” So apparently it was directed toward Klaus.

“Not particularly. No matter what those bickering lords say.”

Gilgamesh was silent. He didn’t move. Klaus stayed standing where he was staring at his son. Should he go over there? Sit with him? Pull him up? Put a hand on his shoulder? Herd him to breakfast? Lecture him about being in the lab? His fingers twitched with indecision and his feet remained rooted to their spot. He had no idea what he was doing.

“You said I’m your son. You said you’d be there and then you weren’t. You said you’d tell me as soon as you came back and then you didn’t.” Finally, finally Gilgamesh looked up. His eyes were wet but he wasn’t crying. Instead he was glaring. “If none of that was important then why is all of it still more important than me?”

Klaus froze. What –

“Gilgamesh –” He said, finally managing a half step forward.

It was like Klaus’s voice shocked him out of whatever temper he’d been in. All the anger drained out of him, replaced by what might have been panic. He scrambled to his feet, eyes dropping back to the floor. “I’m sorry Herr Baron. I – I should be getting to breakfast. I don’t want to be late again. I’m sorry.”

“Gilgamesh!” But Gilgamesh was already pushing his way past him. “Wait –!”

“I’m sorry.” And then Gilgamesh was gone.

Klaus was left standing in the middle of the empty lab.

* * *

Klaus had screwed up.

Really, really screwed up.

Gilgamesh didn’t return to the lab that evening.

How could Gilgamesh not know how important he was?

Or the next morning.

How could he not know how much Klaus loved him?

In fact, as far as Klaus could tell, Gilgamesh didn’t return to the lab at all.

How could Klaus have already screwed everything up so badly?

Gilgamesh was still attending classes. He hadn’t been caught anywhere he shouldn’t be or out past curfew. His work remained excellent and he wasn’t causing any trouble with the students. Except any time he wasn’t in class, he was just… gone. No one knew where he went. (No one had ever known where he’d gone, that was the _problem_ ). The sycophants Klaus had charged with the running of the school didn’t seem to even care. Just so long as he kept reappearing when he was needed. (Klaus made a note to have them replaced as soon as possible.) Unfortunately this meant Klaus had no idea where his son was and therefor had no way to talk to him. Gilgamesh’s new construct – Zoing, his name was Zoing. Gilgamesh had given him a name and he would use it – was no help at all, merely shaking his head and squeaking once in that imperceptible accent of his. In fact now that Klaus thought about it, it was possible he was helping Gilgamesh avoid him. He’d caught the construct running down the hall with an empty teacup more than once. He had to know where Gilgamesh was hiding away.

Klaus had no idea how to fix this.

Finally he broke down and simply summoned Gilgamesh to his private office. It would send gossip flying and extra scrutiny on Gilgamesh was never a good thing but at this point Klaus didn’t care. He was going to talk to his son.

Gilgamesh arrived as soon as classes had ended for the day, escorted by two guards. He was worrying the edge of his sleeve shifting back and forth between the two men. Klaus was vividly reminded of the day he told Gilgamesh of his true heritage.

“Shut the door as you leave,” he told the guards with a wave of his hand. Then it was just him and his son.

Gilgamesh didn’t move from his spot. He didn’t look up.

Klaus had no idea what he was doing.

“Gilgamesh.” His son flinched, curling slightly into himself. “Gil,” he tried again. This time Gilgamesh at least glanced up, no matter how briefly. Now Klaus just had to figure out what to say.

Gilgamesh beat him to it

“I’m sorry! I know you’re busy. I didn’t mean –”

“Son.” Gilgamesh immediately fell silent. “Do you know why I created the empire?”

Gil tilted his head to the side in confusion. He stared at Klaus for a long moment before finally answering, “Because you came back from wherever you’d been and you saw everyone fighting and knew you could stop it?”

“I bet a lot of people think that. But that’s not actually why.”

“It’s not?”

Klaus wound his way around his desk until he could crouch down in front of his son. “I created the empire because when I got back to Europa with you and saw everyone fighting I knew it was the only way to make the world safe for you. The empire only exists because of you.”

Gilgamesh blinked up at him. “Oh,” he said in a very small voice.

Klaus took a moment to let that first part sink in before continuing. “Yes the empire is important. And by this point it does a lot more and keeps a lot more people safe than just you. And sometimes it has to come first because that’s what necessary to keep it running. But it has never and never will be more important than you, Gilgamesh. Nothing is. Do you understand that? Nothing.”

Gilgamesh nodded slightly. “Okay.” Klaus suspected it would still be a few more years before his son fully understood the ramifications of him running an empire and the hold it had on his time but he was confident he’d at least grasped the important parts.

“Now,” he said, straightening and placing a hand on Gilgamesh’s shoulder, “I know I said we’d be able to spend some time together as soon as I got back, and I’m sorry I couldn’t, but I happen to have some time now if you wanted to.”

For the first time since Klaus had gotten back Gilgamesh smiled at him. “Yes please, Father.”

They were going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> No Klaus, you will not.  
> Yes they've actually talked now and yes Klaus recognizes what he's done wrong and will be better now.  
> However.  
> That _does not_ mean this problem is in any way fixed. I don't think when it comes to these two this particular problem ever really is.


End file.
